Features Of The Westminster Model

One of the most celebrated forms of democracy, the "Westminster model" has been a defining feature of the British political system for the past century. Coined after the location where the Houses of Parliament stand, the system is also sometimes referred to as the majoritarian model, in that majority rule is a central attribute of the model. The characterising factors of the model have been present throughout modern British political history, but more apparent in some years than others. The years 1945-1970 symbolise a strong alignment with the main features of the model, in which bare majority cabinets and the concentration of executive power in one party delineated the British political system. The 1970s on the other hand saw a deviation …show more content…
In the last century, this has been a re-occurring trait, with coalition governments being very rare. The 1940-45 coalition between the Conservatives, who had a parliamentary majority, with the Labour and Liberal parties, is one such exception, but this was largely due to the fact that Britain was at war. The only example of a deviation from a concentration of executive power in one party in the post-war era is the two minority Labour governments of the 1970s. Internal strife within the Labour party and economic upheaval were largely to blame for this anomaly. With the exception of the 1970s however, executive power has very much been concentrated in one party – the Thatcher governments, Blair governments and presently Brown government all bare witness to this fact. The implementation of the first past the post system in British general elections ensures that coalition cabinets are very rare. Large majorities are achieved with less than half of the popular vote, a theme which will be addressed later on in the essay. As Lijphart points out, "the British one-party and bare-majority cabinet is the perfect embodiment of the principle of majority rule" . The UK's electoral system, as long as it remains first past the post, will continue to follow one of the main principles of the Westminster model in that executive power will be in the hands of …show more content…
Theoretically, cabinet must be accountable to parliament, which has the power to vote them out of office. In practice however, this is very rarely the case as a consequence of the disproportionably large majorities gained by the winning party. Cabinet is composed of the main figures of the party in power, giving it, in most cases, domination over parliament to pass laws and govern relatively freely. The only anomaly to this trait in modern history has been the 1970s, in which government legislation did not go through as smoothly. Although Labour had the most seats in the Commons, they did not have a majority, and consequently a hung parliament. In essence, it's a chain reaction – the 1970s was a very rare case in that general election results did not produce the usual disproportional results attributed to the plurality method. This in turn breaks the mould of the two-party system, with the Liberals being the main benefactors in this case. As a consequence, cabinet do not dominate and are very much accountable to parliament as they can, in such a scenario, force them out of office. However, such an event, although it has happened in the past, is very rare. UK politics continues to be a two party system, in which one of the two parties completely dominates the legislature and the executive. Cabinet dominance